UTI Infrastructure Fund rated top performer globally

New Delhi, March 5 (IANS) A top global financial research company has rated the state-run Unit Trust of India’s (UTI) Infrastructure Fund as the top performer in the segment internationally with 63.29 percent annual returns since 2004. Of all infrastructure funds tracked with a three-year track record, the UTI fund delivered the highest returns, says the Lipper Global Data, which is part of the Reuters group.

The fund was among two from India and nine others globally that qualified as per the stringent norms of Lipper, officials of UTI and Lipper told reporters here Wednesday.

“Infrastructure is the buzzword in the present Indian context as there is a huge gap between demand and supply,” said Sumit Mehra, business development manager for Lipper’s India operations.

“That was the reason infrastructure funds were best performers in India in the past two years,” he said, adding the investment of $500 billion expected in the country’s infrastructure should trigger more money into infrastructure funds.

“UTI Infrastructure Fund has large retail participation of 300,000 investors and a corpus size of Rs.160.8 billion ($4 billion) which has continuously benefited from the fund,” added Jaideep Bhattacharya, chief marketing officer of UTI.